Unemployment, innovation and R&D: introduction

Purpose – This paper aims to introduce the contributions in this special issue on “Unemployment, innovation and R&D”, and provide a brief outline of the international conference organised by the Applied Econometrics Association on “Policies against Unemployment”. Design/methodology/approach – The paper is descriptive in nature. Findings – The papers presented in this special issue shed some light on the key determinants of unemployment levels, and help to identify policies that can tackle unemployment successfully. Originality/value – Some radically different approaches to the issue of tackling unemployment are presented. The special issue, of which this paper is a part, provides further new evidence on the impact of innovation and R&D on employment/unemployment and unemployment persistence.